Arch Linux

Frosted

Member

Registered: 2014-04-18

Posts: 20

Audio Performance

No "it's just me." I can hear the difference like night and day. I have my computer connected to a Pioneer VSX-816 with 4 plain-Jane 100w speakers and an Asus Xonar D1 audio card. I wasn't expecting the audio to sound better in linux, so I can rule out the placebo effect. In some songs, what were subtle "background" tones are now vibrant foreground tones. Everything sounds richer and clearer. I had the Asus EQ tweaked pretty good under Windows 7, and right now I haven't even touched an EQ and it sounds great.

A google search shows that some people claim there is no difference, but I'm thinking people who say there isn't a difference are probably using onboard audio. So, has anyone else noticed this and does anyone have any info as to why the audio is better?

Last edited by Frosted (2014-04-26 16:07:17)

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I have a knack for having a knack, but know nothing too well.

defears

Member

Registered: 2010-07-26

Posts: 218

Re: Audio Performance

If you are using pulseaudio, try changing these.

/etc/pulse/daemon.conf:; default-sample-rate = 44100

/etc/pulse/daemon.conf:; resample-method = speex-float-1

So what exactly are you using? What desktop? Connection to stereo, HDMI, RCA, coaxial, optical?

sekret

Member

Registered: 2013-07-22

Posts: 285

Re: Audio Performance

Is it possible that you destroyed the sound on Windows with the EQ? I don't know if you are an audio expert, but an EQ can be a powerful tool to 1. make speakers sound great in a specific environment, e.g. your living room, but 2. totally destroy everything. Some people tend to e.g. cut the mids and raise the lows and highs. In Germany we call this "Badewanne", or "bathtub". I don't know if this is also common in the english language, but you can imagine why it's called like this

My rule of thumb is: If you play well produced music on a decent sound system (including the drivers and soundcard, if it comes from a computer), there shouldn't be much adjustment required, especially in rooms with little naked walls. So better just don't ever tough it, except if you know what you are doing.

Frosted

Member

Registered: 2014-04-18

Posts: 20

Re: Audio Performance

It's not that I ever thought things sounded terrible in Windows, it's that things sounds a lot better now under linux. I suppose it could be that the drivers for this particular card that were written for Windows weren't that great. And I'm using coaxial cables. Now that I think of it, I wonder if I'd get even better audio using my graphics card. It has an optical output for audio. I'll have to try.

Edit: scratch the video card thing, there's no optical port. I thought there was. This nvidia audio device shows up though.

Last edited by Frosted (2014-04-26 18:01:03)

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I have a knack for having a knack, but know nothing too well.